Friday, February 27, 2009

Did you know?

T.M. Camp asked (via Twitter) if this excited or scared me.

Excited.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Budget

Ever since 2000, I've been lucky enough to not have to worry too much about money. Since 2005, when I sold my car and became a born again pedestrian, I've not worried at all. I always made more than I spent, and if I DID spend a little more than the last paycheck, I had a good, solid buffer in place.

Then I bought a house.

These months are the hardest, as I've dumped everything I have into the down payment, closing costs, renovation costs, and trying to toss a little extra into the mortgage payments to save me a ton of money in the long run.

And my bank account is looking pretty damn small right now.

A lot of people I now literally live paycheck to paycheck, and I'm not quite that low. Not yet. But I'm going to be seeing a lot fewer shows over the next few months, and being a bit less social. Ok, part of that last is due to rehearsals for my next show, but it's also because I just don't have any scratch.

As distressing as I find my situation, I know I have enough money in the bank to pay my bills. I know that my second biggest monthly financial commitment will go away in a mere eight months... and maybe sooner. But that doesn't stop me from compulsively checking my bank balance every couple of days.

I'll start doing my taxes soon, and that should give me a windfall that I desperately need. That's encouraging, but it's still a month or two down the road before I can expect to get any cash back.

So, if I don't come see your show, or if I don't offer to pay for dinner, or if I just generally seem to be a little more scarce than usual, forgive me.

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also, in thematically related news, Obama has put his budget online for citizen review. I highly recommend that you subscribe to the White House blog's RSS feed, which I've found to be a fantastic way to get news about what is happening in the new administration.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

More from the New Frontiersman

I know I may be setting myself up for disappointment, but damn it if it doesn't look like they really get it. Here's hoping the Watchmen movie lives up to it.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Excellent points about the stimulus

Saw this on CNN. The man's got a good point about the Republican list of things to remove from the stimulus plan.